There are many buried pipelines or utilities in use today. Occasionally it is necessary to repair said utilities without damaging them. To do this you have to excavate the dirt from around the utility. The fastest way do this is using a hydraulically powered machine usually an excavator or backhoe. While this method is safe for digging beside the utility it is not designed to safely dig underneath a utility.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,628,130 teaches an attachment for excavating under buried utilities, but requires operation of the excavating machine in an orientation facing cross-wise to the longitudinal direction in which the utility lies, which in cases where available machine navigation space is limited, may render the attachment unusable or may require excessive clearance of land area adjacent the utility. In addition, between use of the attachment at different locations along the utility, the machine must transition from its laterally-facing orientation suitable for, use of the attachment, to a longitudinally-facing orientation drivable long the utility's path, and then back to the laterally-facing orientation at the new location before once again being able to excavate beneath the utility.
Other known patents relating to excavation or clearing in areas of difficult or limited access are outlined as follows.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,953,839 teaches an attachment for excavating beneath ground-level or slightly elevated pipelines or the like, but again requires a lateral approach of the working machine to the utility.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,701,693 teaches an attachment having a laterally extending dozer blade for clearing road berms of debris beneath roadway guard rails.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,172,033 teaches a culvert opening and cleaning attachment for operation from a roadway surface passing over the culvert to be cleaned.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,963,053 teaches an excavator attachment for cleaning under bridges.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,963,053 teaches an offset shovel assembly for a backhoe excavator for use in otherwise inaccessible locations.
U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2011/0088291 teaches a dedicated machine for laterally excavating beneath a buried utility, but requires that the machine itself be conveyed down into a dug out area beside the utility in question.
While at least some of the forgoing prior art has applicability in the context of excavating beneath underground utilities, there remains room for improvement or alternate solutions.
Applicant has developed a new excavation attachment and method of use having unique features not heretofore seen that provide useful in the forgoing context of excavating beneath utilities.